Fourth wall
The fourth wall is a theatre term referring to the audience. This originates from the idea that there are three walls on a stage, one on the back, one to the left, and one to the right, as well as an imaginary fourth wall in front that contains the players within their play. To break the fourth wall means to show awareness of the audience or other things outside of it. Season 2 In Death Is a Bitch After Peter is told by Death to kill the kids from Dawson's Creek, he changes his mind and says to Death on the phone, "If they die, I'll have nothing to watch", he moves his eyes to the viewers saying nervously, "Other than the fine programs on FOX". In Fifteen Minutes of Shame In a reality show that the Griffin family was starring in, Meg breaks the fourth wall by telling the cameraman to turn off the camera (Chris even mentions that Meg has broken the fourth wall, although because they were on a Reality Show, its not really breaking the fourth wall). Season 4 In Brian the Bachelor While watching Chris dance Herbert raise's his eyebrows twice while facing the camera. In 8 Simple Rules For Buying My Teenage Daughter Peter looks at the camera twice during his "I can't believe it's not butter" quote. In The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz Stewie, at one point, urges the viewer to look at some of the women of Desperate Housewives on ABC (Family Guy's competition in the same time slot at the time), and even waits for five seconds until the viewer switches back. Season 5 In Whistle While Your Wife Works In the opening sequence, the fourth wall is broken when we see a camera next to the stairs, and Stewie advises that we cut to the show while Peter rubs his swelling foot. In Saving Private Brian After shooting Vern and Johnny dead, Stewie turns to the camera and says "OK, they're dead. Alright? We're not gonna be seeing them again." In Boys Do Cry During the credits, Peter directs his poor-parenting speech gradually from Lois to the camera "I agree, Lois. Like, for instance, if you're watching a TV show and you decide to take your values from that... you're an idiot. Maybe you should take responsibility for what values your kids are getting. Maybe you shouldn't be letting your kids watch certain shows in the first place if you have such a big problem with them, instead of blaming the shows themselves." ending it and the episode with a simple "Yeah..." Season 6 In Back to the Woods After Ghost Johnny plays the piano in Hell, Ghost Vern faces the viewer and says, "You're probably wondering why he's in Hell. Johnny liked little boys." Season 7 In Love, Blactually Brian and Stewie debate whether Loretta can understand Stewie and a director is heard offscreen saying, "We're filming." Stewie: Just let me do all the talking. Brian: No, I think I can communicate with her better. She's only going to get the gist of what you're saying. Stewie: Really? Isn't she one of those people outside the family who can understand me? Brian: No, I think because of Cleveland she's close enough to the main cast that it might be a little weird. Camera man: We're filming! Stewie: Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry! (to Brian) Ring the doorbell. In I Dream of Jesus After Jesus talks to George W. Bush, Peter looks at the audience and says, "Wouldn't it be great if life were like this?" In Not All Dogs Go To Heaven At the end of the first act, when Meg becomes a born-again Christian, Peter disappointingly tells the audience that this will be a Meg episode and that nobody would blame them if they changed the channel. In 420 Lois tells Brian that Peter has become so intoxicated since Mayor West legalized marijuana that he can barely set up a cutaway. Peter is then shown high and saying, "Man, this is better... No, th-this is worse th-... Uh, whatever, here's a list of celebrities I don't like." In Stew-Roids After Connie is trampled at a party and knocked unconscious, Peter lays on top of her. Annoyed, he looks to the camera and says to the audience, "What are you looking at? It's a cartoon." Then Stewie flies around an outside his bedroom window and lands on the mailbox carefully looking at the camera and says, "And now, here's something we hope you'll really like." In Three Kings Peter is talking to the audience when he told the stories. The Shawshank Redemption Peter breaks the fourth wall when he says, "Since your Black and I'm White, that's make more a-special for the audience''."'' and looks towards the viewers. Season 8 In Spies Reminiscent of Us Stewie gets knocked senseless and is unable to set up a cutaway. He faces the audience and says "Hey, I wonder what Peter is up to?" to cut to scene to Peter and the guys. In Business Guy In the beginning of the episode, Peter seems to be briefly unaware that they have started filming, so for about four seconds, everyone is silent until he looks at the camera and then says, "Oh, uh, it sure was nice to invite us over to your yacht, Mr. Pewterschmidt." In Extra Large Medium Stewie discusses a poem by Henry David Thoreau, pointing out the audience's perceived lack of knowledge when they believe most would attribute it to Thorton Melon, a character in the movie Back to School. In April in Quahog After Stewie plays with his action figures, Stewie faces the audience saying that parents who buy children "homoerotic" dolls that the gay son is on the parents. In Quagmire's Dad Stewie tries to tell Brian on a phone that there's an alien in a grass skirt juggling torches in the living room but he doesn't listen and hangs up. Soon as the alien is seen, Stewie faces the audience and says "Ahh? An alien in a grass skirt juggling torches. Yeah." In The Splendid Source Peter narrate the story to the audience throughout the episode and also reveals that FOX ruined Cleveland's 'surprise' appearance in their promos. In Something, Something, Something, Dark Side Near the end, while Brian (Chewbacca) and Mort (Lando) are sitting in the Millenium Falcon, Brian asks Mort why he is wearing Han's clothes. He looks at the camera and states to the audience that in the real movie Lando wears Han's clothes, suggesting you see it. Then at the end, Chris mentions a channel name that Family Guy is on, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Partial Terms of Endearment Peter calls attention to Family Guy being a show when he threatens to blow up the Family Planning Center to stop Lois from having an abortion. Lois attempts to call his bluff and Peter responds with "You've seen Family Guy! You know I would!" Later in the episode, the family is discussing the pros and cons of abortion without reaching a consensus when Peter looks at the camera and says "We had the abortion." Category:Family Guy